Dina Siegel

Frank Bovenkerk

This unique volume explores the relationship between music and crime in its various forms and expressions, bringing together two areas rarely discussed in the same contexts and combining them through the tools offered by cultural criminology. Contributors discuss a range of topics, from how songs and artists draw on criminality as inspiration to how musical expression fulfills unexpected functions such as building deviant subcultures, encouraging social movements, or carrying messages of protest. Comprised of contributions from an international cohort of scholars, the book is categorized into five parts: The Criminalization of Music; Music and Violence; Organised Crime and Music; Music, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity and Music as Resistance. Spanning a range of cultures and time periods, Crime and Music will be of interest to researchers in critical and cultural criminology, the history of music, anthropology, ethnology, and sociology.

Crime and Music

From 2015 to 2017, thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty arrived on the shores of the Greek island of Lesbos. Now known as the 'refugee crisis', this historic event had a huge impact on the everyday lives of the local residents. The people of Lesbos were left to deal with the newcomers, without support or adequate information from either local or EU authorities with regard to the scale and 'urgency' of the situation. Based on ethnographic research on Lesbos, including participant observation and interviews with a wide range of actors and stakeholders, this book provides an in-depth analysis of the role of NGOs, EU law enforcement, local authorities, businessmen, migrants and local residents in creating and perpetuating the 'migration problem'. This study analyzes the dynamics of solidarity on the island. The early days of the crisis were characterized by euphoria and a warm-hearted welcome that led to the islanders being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Somewhere along the line, this initial enthusiasm turned into disappointment and indifference. What happened to solidarity on Lesbos? Is there anything left of it?

Dynamics of solidarity : consequences of the 'refugee crisis' on Lesbos

Henk van de Bunt

Despite strenuous efforts from local, national, and international law enforcement, organized crime continues to thrive and prosper—even centuries-old crime outfits are surviving the global forces of mass migration and multinational business and finance. From traditional gangland enterprises such as narcotics, gambling, and prostitution, the world’s mafias have moved into new sources of illegal income, including high-tech arms smuggling, money laundering, and identity fraud. Traditional Crime in the Modern World tracks these organizations—the Italian and Mexican mafias, Columbian drug cartels, Chinese triads, and others—across five continents as they adapt to change, and assesses their prospects in the short and long term. World events such as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 terror attacks are discussed in the context of contributing to emerging markets for illicit goods and services, and to evolving partnerships among criminal entities. This timely volume: • Provides a comprehensive overview of how mafia-like structures function today. • Analyzes in depth national crime situations with global implications. • Examines the migration of organized crime groups and their operations in their new countries. • Gauges the influence of digital and other technologies on organized crime. • Where applicable, notes the links between organized crime and national political institutions. • Describes the impact of the global financial crisis on crime organizations. Concise, compelling, and deeply documented, Traditional Crime in the Modern World is an eye-opening resource for researchers in Criminology and Criminal Justice, particularly with an interest in organized crime and trafficking, as well as related topics of Demography, Political Science, and International Relations.

Responses to Socioeconomic Change

Traditional Organized Crime in the Modern World

The academic study of diamonds is as multi-faceted as the precious stones themselves. Mineralogists and geographers have written about them, as have historians and economists and students of art and fashion. They each shine their light on a different aspect of this source of luminous radiance. But who would venture to describe the entire complicated worldwide system starting in the diamond mines and ending with the consumers of Western metropolises? In The Mazzel Ritual: Culture, Customs and Crime in the Diamond Trade, Russian-Israeli cultural anthropologist and criminologist Dina Siegel follows the route of a diamond from the mines of Africa to the shops of Europe and the United States, as it passes through countless hands and places and is smuggled, stolen, cut, polished, sold, exchanged and, finally, worn as jewelry. In the course of this long and exciting journey, a wide range of people face all sorts of risks and criminality, as well as various moral and ethical judgments. Siegel describes the range of ethnic groups that are active in the diamond trade and the culture and customs that are specific to this business. She analyses the dangers and threats to the industry and aims to uncover the strategies and tactics to deal with them. Finally, this story of risk, trust and crime examines the vulnerability of diamond production and distribution to illicit and criminal activities. This book is about the diamond business itself as well as about those involved in it. It tells the story of people who simply cannot stay away from this expensive and alluring commodity.

Culture, Customs and Crime in the Diamond Trade

The Mazzel Ritual

D. Zaitch

H. Bunt

In the current processes of political, economic and cultural changes serious cross-border forms of organized crime receive unprecedented attention as spectacular global media events, as 'threats' of all sorts, and as priority targets of criminal policy and political agendas. Most books on 'global organized crime' focus on one particular region, topic or event, and are written from one specific theoretical and disciplinary framework. The renowned scholars who have contributed to this volume present up-to-date expertise on regions as distant and different as Russia, Colombia, the Netherlands, Israel, Peru and Britain. They tackle phenomena such as international drug trafficking, alien and women smuggling, terrorism, East European organized crime and financial crimes. They show not only how these issues are interrelated, but also the way in which they interact with social, economic and political legitimate structures. The contributors critically question the policies and strategies currently pursued. They explore different theoretical arguments from the perspective of their own disciplines, which include economics, criminology, political science and anthropology.

Trends and Developments

Global Organized Crime

Roos de Wildt

This book presents a vivid description of the solutions that researchers have discovered for ethical dilemmas that pose themselves at studying disadvantaged, vulnerable and victimized populations. Ethical codes prescribe that the scholar should in all circumstances avoid potential harm, that informed consent is necessary and that the limits of confidentiality should always be respected. However, in the practice of research among women involved in prostitution, illegal immigrant workers, enslaved children, people who sell their organs and all the traffickers thereof, the ethical rules cannot always be followed. This book shows that there is a surprising variety of arguable possibilities in dealing with ethical dilemmas in the field. Authors reflect on concrete experiences from their own fieldwork in a wide variety of settings such as the USA, Singapore, Kosovo and The Netherlands. Some choose to work on the basis of conscientious partiality, others negotiate the rules with their informants and still others purposely break the rules in order to disclose and damage the exploiters. Researchers may find themselves in a vulnerable position. Their experiences, as presented in this volume, will help field workers, university administrators, representatives of vulnerable groups, philosophers of ethics and most of all students to go into the field well-prepared. This is a book that every researcher planning to do fieldwork in the difficult field of hidden, illicit and victimized people should read in advance. Dr. Frank Bovenkerk, Professor (Emeritus), Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands This book allows a peek in the kitchen of empirical fieldwork, going into not only “best practices,” but mistakes made, in a frank, courageous and honest way. Dr. Brenda C. Oude Breuil, Willem Pompe Institute for Criminal Law and Criminology, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

Ethical Concerns in Research on Human Trafficking

Hans Nelen

Dina Siegel and Hans Nelen The term ‘global organized crime’ has been in use in criminology since the mid 1990s. Even more general and abstract than its daughter-terms (transnational or cross-border organized crime), ‘global organized crime’ seems to embrace the activities of criminal groups and networks all around the planet, leaving no geographical space untouched. The term appears to cover the geographical as well as the historical domain: ‘global’ has taken on the meaning of ‘forever and ever’. Global organized crime is also associatively linked with ‘globalisation’. The social construction of both terms in scientific discourse is in itself an interesting theme. But perhaps even more interesting, especially for academics trying to conduct empirical research in this area, is the analysis of the symbolic and practical meaning of these concepts. How should criminologists study globalisation in general and global organized crime in particular? Which instruments and ‘theoretical luggage’ do they have in order to conduct this kind of research? The aim of this book is not to formulate simple, straightforward answers to these questions, but rather to give an overview of contemporary criminological research combining international, national and local dimensions of specific organized crime pr- lems. The term global organized crime will hardly be used in this respect. In other social sciences, such as anthropology, there is a tendency to get rid of vague and abstract terms which can only serve to confuse our understanding. In our opinion, criminology should follow this initiative.

Organized Crime: Culture, Markets and Policies

P. C. van Duyne

Klaus von Lampe

Georgios A. Antonopoulos

Jackie H. Harvey

Crime can be seen as an act of defiance against the rule of law, particularly if is committed with intent. This intension is often to make unlawful gains, whether by theft, corruption or taking part in illegal markets, which in Europe are most often cross-border in nature. This entails that criminal defiance is not just a national issue: theft or fraud can be committed locally, while handling the illicit proceeds may require a cross-border movement. Obviously not every state faces the same defiance, or prioritises the same defiance. That may induce stronger states, for example the USA in its 'war-on' policy, to exert pressure on smaller states to accept the same interpretation (and legislation) of criminal defiance. Such 'legislative imperialism' may itself be considered as defiant. Criminal defiance is risky: the authorities do not like to be seen as 'soft' and must visibly 'hit back'. So successful criminals must keep a low profile, though some crime groups, such as the criminal motor-cycle gangs, defy this principle by ostentatious conduct. Likewise, in the case of grand corruption in states where corruption has become endemic, we see criminal defiance, in the case of some eastern European countries the defiance by oligarchs, being a public matter. The 20th Cross-border Crime Colloquium, hosted in 2019 by the Willem Pompe Institute of Utrecht University, presents this peer-reviewed volume to which 32 authors from all over Europe have contributed. It covers a broad range of expertise and original research projects: from the UK, Germany and further to Russian Siberia and back to the frayed fringes of the Mediterranean shores where a host of migrant workers is ready to defy fate for a better life.

Criminal Defiance in Europe Beyond

This volume includes topics analysing the meaning of the Covid-19 pandemic and the social responses to it in various domains: from sex work to wildlife crimes, from new forms of social control in Brazil, Ecuador, Canada and Thailand to the role of music, the symbolism of face masks, the spreading of conspiracy theories, domestic violence, and more. It is composed of studies conducted by criminologists who belong to the 'Utrecht school'. Criminology 'Utrecht style' is unique in the world in the sense that cultural, critical and global criminology are central to its research and teaching programme, ethnographic and netnographic methods are rigorously applied and further developed. The researches here presented - in all their variety, improvisation, and cross-pollination - contribute to the body of cultural criminological work, and go beyond. They explore themes and concepts underexposed in cultural criminology so far, and contribute to the further growth of this academic perspective through their combined understandings of crime and social reactions under extreme social circumstances.

Global Criminological Perspectives on Coronavirus Pandemic

Notes from Isolation

Na de val van de muur kreeg de chaos vrij spel in Rusland. De schokgolven waren voelbaar in de hele wereld, ook in Nederland.Misdaad werd een belangrijk Russisch exportproduct. In Russische bizniz vertelt Dina Siegel het ware verhaal van de Russische misdaad in Nederland. Hoogleraar criminologie Frank Bovenkerk schreef een voorwoord. Het einde van de Sovjet-Unie maakte de strijdkrachten en veiligheidsdiensten stuurloos. Het totalitaire systeem moest plaatsmaken voor een rechtsstaat maar voorlopig was er even niets. In dit klimaat kon de georganiseerde misdaad uitstekend gedijen en zich vrijelijk verplaatsen naar andere delen van Europa en naar de Verenigde Staten. Nederland kent een omvangrijke Russische gemeenschap, Dina Siegel, zelf emigrante uit Rusland, heeft jarenlang onderzoek gedaan naar de Russische misdaad in Nederland. Prostitutie, afpersing, wapen-, kunst- en mensensmokkel, moord, drugs en witwaspraktijken: in Russische bizniz komen de criminelen zelf aan het woord.

Russische bizniz

"This book collates a number of papers that were presented in Amsterdam during the seminars of the Centre for Information and Research on Organized Crime (CIROC) in 2002 and 2003"--Introduction.

Dina Siegel

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